The Looking Glass War Audiobook By John Le Carré cover art

The Looking Glass War

George Smiley, Book 4

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John Le Carré dominates the espionage form as no other writer has since Eric Ambler was at his peak. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In years past, the Circus oversaw political matters while their counterpart, the Department, dealt with intelligence more military in nature. These days, however, the Circus' influence looms large, while the Department is relegated to the doldrums of bureaucracy and red tape.

With the Cold War at a fever pitch, though, a potential assignment is only ever one defector-turned-informant away. Alerted to the possibility of missile activity from the Soviets on the West German border, the long stagnant Department leaps at the chance to restore some of their cache in the intelligence community. Director Leclerc hunts down former field agent Fred Leiser and sends him beyond the wall to East Germany—tying the Department's fate to his.

The Looking Glass War follows the Circus' foil in the British intelligence community: the Department. With its nuanced portrayal of the nature of espionage—in all its contradictions—the fourth in John le Carré's George Smiley series is a compelling spy tale that brings the dangers of nostalgia front and center.

©2013 John Le Carré (P)2024 Dreamscape Media Spies & Politics Cold War International Mystery & Crime Political Espionage Suspense Mystery Thriller & Suspense War Military
Superb Writing • Moving Story • Gritty Realities • Impeccable Narration • Excellent Performance

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This is the most moving spy novel I have ever read. It's so visceral, so honest, so raw. It's high art.

Masterpiece

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I've been making my way through all these books and I have to say this is maybe my favorite so far. I loved the incompetence of the military and the involvement of the circus. Smiley as always is a cold blooded bad ass. The writing is superb, and the narrator is also a personal favorite of mine

Loved this story

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An ode to the ambitious pencil pusher at a career dead end, this was one of the smaller tales in Le Carre's catalogue. And boy was it bleak; the villains are repugnant in their weakness and egotism, and not in their love for cruelty. Leiser was probably the most interesting and sympathetic character in the book; it would have been a little better if he had been the protagonist. I rate it 4/5, because it doesn't reach the heights that much of Le Carre's work does, but all the same, a middling Le Carre is better than 90% of all spy fiction. I recommend it for the diehard like me, but not as a first exposure to Le Carre.

One of the author's less ambitious tales.

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In this fourth George Smiley novel, LaCarré carries on his descriptive nature and attention to the smallest details. They put the listener inside each scene, as though watching from the corner of the room, through your own looking glass, picking apart each character’s action while in anticipation for their next move.

John LaCarré Classic Literature

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It's not for the easy thrills of reading a classic spy novel. It's for understanding the gritty realities underlying current spy industry and by extension, the military industrial complex. The novel reveals the hard truth of how government organizations can feed themselves on their own illusions, use people and lives as expendable capital, and be bumbling and incompetent. It is a sad commentary on how hollow the spy industry really is. And perhaps entire military and information cultures.

Le Carré himself says that, this novel is to de-glamorize the industry. To show how absolutely pointless and even destructive it is. How it takes our humanity as something like cannon fodder for a pointless war. But that is not entertainment; it is a cold stark reality. Hence, many reviewers do not like the novel.

It is important information, a reality we need to face.

It is a hard disheartening read, but worth it in order to see a side of "war" and "security" that is seldom portrayed.

What it's really like, not just entertainment

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